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Diskussion:Pressekonferenz-Archiv zur Johnson Regierung
Johnson for President! Den alten Lyndon Baines zum tumben, versoffenen, unfähigen rassistischen Diktator zu machen ist nun wirklich nicht fair, gegenüber der zu Grunde liegenden historischen Person. Klar, wenn wir Europäer an Johnson denken, denken wir zunächst bloss an Vietnam. Aber man darf nicht vergessen, dass schon unter Kennedy, die Zahl der Waffenlieferungen und "Militärberater" nach Südvietnam ernorm aufgestockt und ein Krieg in Betracht gezogen wurde. Die Ansicht, dass Kennedy den Vietnamkrieg verhindert hätte, ist recht umstritten. Vor allem muss man berücksichtigen, dass Johnson innenpolitisch einer der bedeutensten US-Präsidenten aller Zeiten war, der in Sachen Wahlrecht, Gesundheitswesen, Sozialsystem, Erziehungswesen, Umwelt, Ernährung, Verbraucherschutz und Bürgerrechten viel geleistet hat. Insbesondere der Gun Control Act, der Social Security Act von 1965, der Voting Rights Act, die Civil Rights Acts von 1964/1968 und die Ernennung von Thurgood Marshall zum ersten afroamerikanischen Richter des Obersten Gerichtshofs sind Meilensteine der Ära Johnson. "At times history and fate meet at a single time in a single place to shape a turning point in man's unending search for freedom. So it was at Lexington and Concord. So it was a century ago at Appomattox. So it was last week in Selma, Alabama. There, long-suffering men and women peacefully protested the denial of their rights as Americans. Many were brutally assaulted. One good man, a man of God, was killed. There is no cause for pride in what has happened in Selma. There is no cause for self-satisfaction in the long denial of equal rights of millions of Americans. But there is cause for hope and for faith in our democracy in what is happening here tonight. For the cries of pain and the hymns and protests of oppressed people have summoned into convocation all the majesty of this great Government - the Government of the greatest Nation on earth. (...) The issue of equal rights for American Negroes is such an issue. And should we defeat every enemy, should we double our wealth and conquer the stars, and still be unequal to this issue, then we will have failed as a people and as a nation. For with a country as with a person, "What is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?" There is no Negro problem. There is no Southern problem. There is no Northern problem. There is only an American problem. And we are met here tonight as Americans-not as Democrats or Republicans-we are met here as Americans to solve that problem. This was the first nation in the history of the world to be founded with a purpose. The great phrases of that purpose still sound in every American heart, North and South: "All men are created equal" - "government by consent of the governed"-"give me liberty or give me death." Well, those are not just clever words, or those are not just empty theories. In their name Americans have fought and died for two centuries, and tonight around the world they stand there as guardians of our liberty, risking their lives. But even if we pass this bill, the battle will not be over. What happened in Selma is part of a far larger movement which reaches into every section and state of America. It is the effort of American Negroes to secure for themselves the full blessings of American life. Their cause must be our cause too. Because it is not just Negroes, but really it is all of us, who must overcome the crippling legacy of bigotry and injustice. And We Shall Overcome. As a man whose roots go deeply into Southern soil l know how agonizing racial feelings are. I know how difficult it is to reshape the attitudes and the structure of our society. But a century has passed, more than a hundred years, since the Negro was freed. And he is not fully free tonight. It was more than a hundred years ago that Abraham Lincoln, a great President of another party, signed the Emancipation Proclamation, but emancipation is a proclamation and not a fact. A century has passed, more than a hundred years, since equality was promised. And yet the Negro is not equal. A century has passed since the day of promise. The time of justice has now come. I tell you that I believe sincerely that no force can hold it back. It is right in the eyes of man and God that it should come. And when it does, I think that day will brighten the lives of every American. For Negroes are not the only victims. How many white children have gone uneducated, how many white families have lived in stark poverty, how many white lives have been scarred by fear, because we have wasted our energy and our substance to maintain the barriers of hatred and terror? So I say to all of you here, and to all in the Nation tonight, that those who appeal to you to hold on to the past do so at the cost of denying you your future. This great, rich, restless country can offer opportunity and education and hope to all: black and white, North and South, sharecropper and city dweller. These are the enemies: poverty, ignorance, disease. They are the enemies and not our fellow man, not our neighbor. And these enemies too, poverty, disease and ignorance, we shall overcome. An American problem.“ Auszug aus Johnson Rede nach den gewaltsam niedergeschlagenen Selma-nach-Montgomery-Märschen 217.7.17.165 08:23, 1. Dez. 2010 (UTC)